Dangerous wildfires are spreading across the Pacific Northwest, forcing thousands of people to evacuate their homes in parts of Washington state and Oregon. Photo Courtesy Washington Department of Natural Resources.
Aug. 2 (UPI) — Thousands of people were ordered to evacuate their homes across the Pacific Northwest on Saturday, as dangerous wildfires spread in parts of Washington state and Oregon.
Three major wildfires are burning around Spokane, the largest of which had burned more than 3,500 acres by Sunday morning, NPR reported.
“I was sitting near an elementary school and saw a wall of flames east of the school and just a cascade of black smoke and a wall of flames coming toward me,” Alexandra Duggan, who lives in the area, told NPR.
More than 5,000 structures are threatened by the fires, which have knocked out power from ore than 13,000 homes, CNN reported.
Gov. Bob Ferguson of Washington declared a state of emergency, saying, “Our record-setting drought and high winds are creating dangerous conditions across the state.”
“If you are in the area, please continue to be vigilant and follow directions of emergency personnel,” Ferguson said in a statement on X.
In Oregon, wildfires have burned more than 1.8 million acres this season, OPB reported.
On Saturday, more than 25,000 Oregonians were under evacuation orders in central and southeastern Oregon.
One of the blazes, east of Mount Hood, had already burned some 23,000 acres by Saturday morning and remained at 0% containment.
“The reason we’re seeing these conditions… is that things are really dry,” said Matt Callihan, a lead meteorologist for the National Weather Service, to OPB. “We haven’t seen rain in a long time. It’s been hot, so that’s allowed fuels to cure pretty well.”